Way of the Wilder Immersion:
Wild Plants, Homesteading & The Wilders Garden
Spend next year immersed in the study of Wild Plants, Homesteading and The Wilders Garden, a sustainability program that builds upon permaculture design. Experienced instructors guide you through our Way of the Wilder curriculum and its three core studies...
Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants 1st weekend of the month for 9-month, Cultivate and harvest to feed the village. Go in depth with wild foods, medicines and caretaking for the land. More details...
Homesteading 2nd weekend of the month for 9-months, Embark on projects of self-sufficiency and sustainability. Develop your experience in animal husbandry, sustenance gardening, food preservation, natural building and much more. More details...
The Wilders Garden 3rd weekend of the month for 9-months, Discover connection with the land that goes beyond permaculture and organic gardening. Get hands-on experience designing truly useful systems that are regenerative while also encouraging the diversity of life in the land we lived. More details...
Free Informational Evening March 13, 2012, 7pm-9pm, Portland, OR
Immersion Information Session Learn more about Trackers. This evening we cover the focus, philosophy and unique teaching methods of our long-term training programs for adults.
Contact Us to RSVP 5040 SE Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, OR
You Decide, You Choose
Decide to attend one, two or three weekends a month. Each weekend focuses on a core study. For example, you only have to attend the Homesteading weekend if that is your focus.
A Wilder
Our Way of the Wilder curriculum is different than other schools of sustainability education, especially those that focus on permaculture. Our learning is more hands-on while also not being "grunt" work, a legitimate concern about many permaculture schools that focus on pen and paper design.
At Trackers we cultivate a supportive learning community, one that works as a team to reclaim an ancient heritage that belongs to us all. You become an ambassador for a culture that needs to exist, one that lives for sustainability and deep connections to the land we live.
Making Real Change
We not only teach you expert level self-sufficiency and traditional crafts, we focus on how you spread those skills within your community. Whether in a formal or informal eudcational setting, our Outdoor Immersion Programs helps foster more connection in your life and the land you live.
We also have an enrollment option for people specifically training for environmental education. It includes additional experience learning as an assistant in our summer youth programs. Learn more about our Environmental Educator Training Program...
Register for Wild Edible Plants, Homesteading or The Wilders Garden
Tuition
2549
Plants September 2012-June 2013, 9 monthly weekends, Fri evening to Sun |
Tuition
2549
Homesteading September 2012-June 2013, 9 monthly weekends, Fri evening to Sun |
Tuition
2549
Wilders Garden September 2012-June 2013, 9 monthly weekends, Fri evening to Sun |
Tuition
6749
The Way of the Wilder All 3-Wilder Weekends, 9 months, Fri evening to Sun |
Tuition*
Tuition includes instruction, Saturday dinner and camping for program weekends. Payment options include...
Pay in Full 20% discount
Receive a 20% discount when you pay in full. $500 non-refundable deposit due upon acceptance, then the remaing balance is due by August 31.
Seasonal Payment Plan
Tuition is divided into 3-seasonal terms. Fall term tuition due upon acceptance. Winter term tuition due November 1. Spring term tuition due February 1.
Monthly Payment Plan
A 25% adminstration fee added to total tuition. $500 non-refundable deposit due upon acceptance. Remaining balance divided equally into
9-monthly payments.
*all tuition deposits and payments are non-refundable
1 Core Study 1-weekend a month for 9-months Tuition 2549
2 Core Studies 2-weekends a month for 9-months Tuition 4999
Full Program: 3 Core Studies 3-weekends a month for 9-months Tuition 6749
Immersion That Fits Your Life
Our Weekend Immersion Programs integrate well into your working and personal life. Each weekend begins Friday evening and ends Sunday afternoon. Most weekends take place within a one-hour drive from Portland, Oregon and PDX Airport (an international terminal). Each Core Study occurs monthly, so there is time for students to self-utilize and refine experience in the skills we teach.
Location
Sandy, Oregon at Aschoff Ranch in the Marmot Valley. This incredible 40-acre woodland site is named for the intrepid pioneer that settled and founded the town of Marmot in the late 1800s. It is adjacent to the Audubon Society of Portland's 60-acre nature sanctuary and miles of national forest.
Scholarships
We have scholarship awards available of up to 10%-40% or tuition for students in need. Due to limited funds of awards we recommend you apply early to increase your chances of acceptance. Submit a scholarship application
Meals
Provided meals for overnights are dinners which are completely omnivore. They include an array of vegetables, grains, dairy and meat; all often mixed together. As we cook most of our meals over a woodfired kitchen we are unable to make accommodations and distinctions for specialized or specific diets.
Systemic Food Allergies To the best of our ability we work to exclude items that typically result in severe systemic reactions leading to anaphylaxis. Working with your medical doctor, if have a severe food allergy (such as peanut butter) please Contact Us and we will investigate if it is possible to adjust our meal plans.
Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants Immersion Program
9-month Weekend Training 1-weekend a month, September-June
Immerse yourself in the core study of Edible and Medicinal Plants. The Wilders Guild takes you through the seasons of harvest and preservation. We address wild food systems and caretaking that feed and sustain the health a village through many generations.
Wild Food and Foraging
Unique to this 9-month course is an in-depth focus on harvest and preservation that actually provides the nourishment an individual, family or community needs to thrive. The art of the meal, the gastronomy and gourmet depth of wild foods is celebrated throughout 4-seasons. Every form of processing is covered: from canning to fermenting, from drying to tinctures. While technically not a "plant" we also go deeply in mycology and edible mushrooms.
Another key point of this immersion program is caretaking and regeneration of this harvest. The goal is use our foraging practices to intensify and stabilize diversity of habitat in an effort to benefit native flora and fauna.
A Community to Gather
This course develops a community for gatherers, gleaners and medicine makers. Our weekends are not simply educational, they become like a family reunion. We shape a culture of respect and care for all life around us.
Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants Immersion could include...
• Plant taxonomy
• Herbal and medicinal medicine making and applications
• Harvest for abundance and long-term wilderness living
• Preservation and storage methods: drying, canning, fermenting and processing
• Wildland ecology and conversation of native species
• Intensification of harvest plots for native species
• Basic and safe mushroom identification and uses
• Utilitarian uses of wild plants
• Plant fiber arts and applications
• Historical and cultural uses of wild edible and medicinal plants
Important Dates
Dates for Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants weekends are as follows….
September 14-16, 2012
October 5-7, 2012
November 2-4, 2012
January 4-6, 2013
February 1-3, 2013
March 1-3, 2013
April 5-7, 2013
May 3-5, 2013
May 31-June 2, 2013
Homesteading Crafts Immersion Program
9-month Weekend Training 1-weekend a month, September-June
Immerse yourself in the core study of Homesteading Crafts. The Wilders Guild takes you off the grid and onto the land. We go in-depth into projects of home and hearth, developing your experience in animal husbandry, sustenance gardening, food preservation, natural building, alternative energy, the fiber and sewing arts and much more.
Homesteading Crafts
This 9-months gives you the foundations and experience you need for both rural and urban homesteading. As the year goes by, you build your self-sufficiency with hands-on projects. Spin and weave your own clothing, milk goats, make cheese, plant sustenance gardens, blacksmith hand tools and even write a business plan for fiscal self-sufficiency. Every weekend is your chance to learn from experts in the their craft and the real world applications of each skill.
Community Ways
Community and family become a core tenant of homesteading and the Wilder Way. We not only value all ways of family, both immediate and extended, we also look at the land and life around us as a community to care for and tend to. From how raising cattle can actually help restore native prairie to expanding our gardens to include wild foods, this program presents homesteading crafts as a means to restore the land its native habitats.
Homesteading Crafts Immersion could include...
• From animal to clothing: all aspects of fiber arts
• Dairy goats, ferments and cheese making
• Poultry and rabbits
• Animal husbandry for native species conversation
• Preservation and storage methods: drying, canning, fermenting and processing
• Butchering and meat processing
• Woodworking and natural building methodology
• Basic blacksmithing
• Nourishing foods and cooking from the hyper-local foods
• Sustenance gardening with a transition to The Hunter-Gatherers Garden
• Alternative heating and energy options
Important Dates
Dates for wilderness survival and primitive skills weekends are as follows….
September 21-23, 2012
October 12-14, 2012
November 9-11, 2012
January 11-13, 2013
February 8-10, 2013
March 8-10, 2013
April 12-14, 2013
May 10-12, 2013
May 31-June 2, 2013
The Wilders Garden Immersion Program
9-month Weekend Training 1-weekend a month, September-June
Immerse yourself in the core study of The Hunter-Gatherers Garden: Regenerative Ecological Relationships. This program exists to make our land wild again. A Wilder sees the land and intrinsically knows all the elements and forces that shape it. We teach you to use your hands and revive our native habitats while fundamentally remaking how people relate to the Earth.
All the Elements of Growth and Change
These 9-months immerses you in the art of Wilding. The Hunter-Gatherers Garden asks you to look at and deeply understand the innate power of life around us. All the elements that affect an ecosystem are given our respect and astute study. Water, earth air and fire become the core of how we help the land reshape itself from a monoculture to a place of regenerative stability and diversity of life. In this program we use the ancient art of tracking to take your observational and awareness skills to the next level. You truly become a part of the very land you care take for.
The Design that Has No Design
Permaculture has brought forth a phenomenal set of tools for systems that put human beings at the center of a deliberate plan and design. Unfortunately these more complex food and human living systems are often not fully integrated into the flow of the wild. The Hunter-Gatherers Garden begins where permaculture leaves off. Wilding fully embraces an animated relationship with the land. Through immersion you discover a deep place of flow while learning a language older than words. This is where you engage in a deep and ever-shifting conversation in nature.
The Wilders Garden Immersion includes...
• Remediating and restoring the health of the soil: mushrooms, plants and more
• Wildland ecology and conversation of native species
• Intensification of harvest plots for native species
• Deep observation and listening to the land
• Application of permaculture design principles than going beyond them
• Wildcrafting as a tool for intensive focus
• Naturalist skills as applied to the Way of the Wilder
• Wild tea harvest as meditative practice and familial relationships
• Tracking as applied to the Way of the Wilder
• Flow as a tool of natural and dynamic design
• Leading edge conversation of native habitat while meeting human village needs
• Blurring the lines between the wild and the village
Important Dates
Dates for wilderness survival and primitive skills weekends are as follows….
September 28-30, 2012
October 19-21, 2012
November 16-18, 2012
January 18-20, 2013
February 15-17, 2013
March 15-17, 2013
April 19-21, 2013
May 17-19, 2013
May 31-June 2, 2013
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